48 Hours of Drinking in Johannesburg

&Union Beer Salon draws a steady local crowd in Maboneng. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Drop bags. Find a hotel-adjacent bar within a five-minute walk. Order something simple to anchor yourself to the city.

Marble Restaurant Bar draws a steady local crowd in Rosebank. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. The polished room you'd take a first date to. Sit at the bar. Talk to the bartender. Stay one drink — you're scouting, not committing.

Jolly Roger Pub draws a steady local crowd in Greenside. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Walk into the city's drinking quarter (the heart of the night, not the tourist version). Two drinks, two rooms. Pace yourself — Saturday is the long day.

Blind Tiger is the Parkhurst speakeasy hidden behind a bookshelf inside a coffee shop — push the right book, the shelf swings open, into a dim 45-seat 1920s-the Sunset. Find a rooftop. Order whatever the house specials around sundown. Take photos but don't lose 90 minutes to your phone.

Craft Beer Pub draws a steady local crowd in Linden. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Eat somewhere with serious bartending built in. The right room is one you order both your dinner and your nightcap from.

Croft & Co opened quietly on 4th Avenue about four years ago, and Parkhurst's discerning regulars found it almost immediately. The bar seats 40 across a lon The bar that made you book the trip. The pre-research one. Reservation-only ideally. Stay until last call.

Cuban Fork Bar draws a steady local crowd in Maboneng. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Mary, Mimosa, or whatever low-ABV house play the room runs. Eat. Pay. Walk.

Darling Brew Tap House draws a steady local crowd in Maboneng. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Find the hotel bar at your departure airport equivalent — somewhere quiet, low-volume, well-staffed. End the trip on a martini and a clean conversation.